Heroes High
by SupervilleAngel28
Summary: after Claire's family moves to Smallville to get away from the company and Sylar, she tries to fit in with her classmates. Claire/Clark
1. Chapter 1 : its a small town after all

_Set during the first season of heroes and the fourth season of smallville (but without the Jason/magical stones drama)also Lana is still on the cheerleading squad._

"Dad, I can't believe we had to move to the most unknown town in the world! There are actually farms here dad! FARMS! This is so not Texas," Claire Benett complained to her father. Now that the company and Sylar were both after Claire and her family, they had to move to the small town of Smallville and change their last name to Butler.

"Claire, we're moving so you can be safe. You could at least be a bit thankful that Lyle and your mother aren't angry at you!" Noah Benett said, in his 'angry' tone. He took a deep breath to calm down, he was really getting sick of Claire complaining all weekend. "I'm sorry Claire Bear, it's not your fault and don't you ever think it is. But just think of this as a new beginning. I hear they have a good cheerleading program at Smallville High, and as long as you don't show your ability, I'll let you join the team"

"Oh, how generous of you. Maybe I should make my disguise a bit better and just dye my hair!"

"Well, if you choose a reasonable color, I-"

"Dad!!!" Claire looked at her father. _He can't be serious_, she thought.

"I'm just kidding! Now let's go before you're late for your first day of school." Noah said as he started the engine to the family's SUV.

* * *

As soon as Claire got to Smallville High, she knew this wasn't going to be a very good first day. She stumbled right into someone after slipping on the stairs. Luckily, he was fast enough to catch her before she fell and temporarily cracked her head open.

"Wow, are you ok?" He asked her as she looked into his eyes. Were they blue, green or brown? She couldn't even tell. They were almost like a wonderful mix of all three colors.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks," Claire answered.

"Are you new here?" he asked as he helped her back onto her feet.

"Is it that obvious?" she laughed. He smiled and her heart melted slightly. She was weak for dimples.

"Well when you live in such a small town for most of your life, you start to recognize people that you've never met before," he smiled again. As she looked up at him, she realized he was over a foot taller than her.

"Yeah, I see your point. My name's Claire Butler, I just move here on the weekend."

"Well then it's nice to meet you Claire, my name's Clark Kent."

* * *

"Hi, you're Claire right?" Claire turned to see a girl her age walking beside her.

"Yeah, that's me," she replied.

"Great! My name's Lana Lang and I've been asked to show you around the school. I also have your timetable and it looks like we have all the same classes which will make this easier," she smiled. _Wow_, Claire thought, _is she trying to sell me something? She won't stop smiling, it's kind of creepy._

"Awsome," Claire smiled back, she wasn't going to be rude and tell Lana to let her find her own way. She wanted to be left alone though. She told herself that to make her dad feel bad, she had to have a horrible day at school. Oh well, maybe Lana could be useful. "I heard your school has a cheerleading squad?"

"Yeah we do! I'm the captain actually, did you cheerlead at your old school?"

"Yeah. Do you guys have any openings? I know this is late in the year to start, but I thought maybe since I've been cheerleading before, there might be an exception?" she said as she looked at Lana hopefully.

"Actually, it's your lucky day, one of our cheerleaders broke her leg. Why don't you come to the practice after school today so we can see what you've got? Now we better go or we'll be late for Chemistry," Lana said as she rushed Claire down the hallway.

* * *

The day went by slowly and Claire was bored out of her mind. The only thing that made it a bit better was when Lana insisted Claire join her table at the cafeteria. Claire was afraid it was going to be full of the stereotypical cheerleaders: air-heads who only talk about clothes and boys. Well she was pretty surprised to see that only two other people where there, one who she recognized.

"Guys, this is Claire, she's new here," Lana said as introduction. She pointed to her two friends as she said "Claire, this is Chloe Sullivan and Clark-"

"Kent. Yeah, we've met already," Claire finished for her. She smiled at him, and he showed her that wonderful smile again.

"Alright, great," Lana said. She didn't look like she meant it though. _I know I have history class with Lana, but maybe she has history with Clark too, and not the kind that you take at school,_ she thought.

"Are you at all interested in writing?" Chloe asked Claire once they all sat down. "Because I run the Torch, this school's newspaper, and I need some more writers. I think it would be great to have a story about life in Texas. It must be so different there."

"Yeah, it really is," Claire replied. "But Lana said there's an opening on the cheerleading squad and I don't know if I'll have time for that too."

"Come on!" Chloe encouraged her. "Clark is the quarterback and he writes for the Torch too!"

Claire smiled. So she could spend time with Clark at games AND at the Torch? _I give up. I'll just have to tell dad that the first day of school didn't go by so bad._ "Sure, sounds like fun," Claire said with a big smile on. After locking eyes with Clark for a few minutes, she turned to see Lana staring at her, with the most annoyed and frustrated look on her face. _I think I'm going to have to start watching my back from now on_, she thought.


	2. Chapter 2 : Bites

Chapter 2

"Ok dad? I'll be home in time for supper, don't worry. Love you," Claire said into her phone, just as she hung up. She closed her locker and headed towards the field.

"Hey Claire! Wait up!" Claire turned around to see Clark jogging up behind her. "We have a practice right now so I was thinking I could walk you to the field?" he said with a smile on, as usual.

"I'd love that," Claire said. They walked over to the field and separated off to their teams. Claire could see Lana watching her as she walked over, occasionally glancing at Clark too.

"Hey Claire," Lana said. _Maybe if I get her on the team, I can keep a closer eye on her. Clark should know that we're meant to be together! Maybe I can even tell Claire things that will make her hate him,_ she thought as she tried to keep a mischievous grin off her face. "Why don't we get started? Let's see a back tuck and then we'll show you the routine."

Claire did a perfect back tuck, back flip and the routine went very well too, even the other cheerleaders told Lana that there was no way they could let her leave without an outfit.

"Alright. See you at practice tomorrow Claire," Lana said in a bit of an annoyed tone.

* * *

Claire decided to walk home after the 'try-outs'. It would take her about 20 minutes, but she wanted to clear her head. What better way to do that than walking on a road that cars barely ever drive on and that is surrounded by cornfields?

When she got to her house, she realized that she never looked out the window to see that she had next door neighbors, she was too caught up in trying to get her family to move back to Odessa. She lived in a nice little house, not a farm, that had a big field in the back yard, like every other house here. But the house next to hers was a real farm, with a barn between Claire's house and another nice little yellow house.

She walked to her front porch and sat down on the bench swing and casually looked at the other house. Until, of course, she noticed Clark Kent giving a golden retriever some food just near the door to the barn. _Does this guy like follow me? Not that I would mind having a next door neighbor like him,_ Claire thought.

She walked over and stopped just in front of him. As he looked up, he had the strangest expression on his face, a mix between shock, defensive and happy. "Hey Clark, I'm trying to convince myself that your not stalking me since you seem to be everywhere I go today," Claire said with a laugh.

"How did you find me here?" Clark asked. He really did seem defensive.

"I moved in right next door," Claire said while pointing. Then she realized something else, "Hey, I never saw you get into a car before I left, but I walked home. How did you get here so fast?"

Clark took a few seconds too long to think of an answer. "Oh, you know when you've lived here your whole life, you find shortcuts to school," he said, nervously.

"Right, yeah," Claire said. She looked down at an excited golden retriever and started petting it. She loved dogs. "What's its name?"

Clark smiled at the dog, "Shelby, his name's Shelby. Do you like dogs?"

Claire laughed, "Yeah, I have one actually. He's a Pomeranian named Mr. Muggles," she paused to hear Clark laugh, "Weird name huh? My mom's idea," Claire joined Clark and soon they were both laughing so hard, she almost had watery eyes. It wasn't even that funny, but laughing with him was the most fun she'd had since she found out she had to move to the middle-of-nowhere town.

The fun stopped when realized that Shelby bit her. The thing is, since she can't feel pain, Clark saw this before she could even say "Ouch!" in that fake tone she uses to often.


	3. Chapter 3 : Trust

**Trust**

**Side note: I know Clark shouldn't know that Chloe knows his secret yet, but just so that things in this story make sense, he has already informed Chloe about everything. **

"Oh my god Claire! Are you okay?" Clark asked as he panicked and tried to find a towel to stop the blood, but when he came back, the wound had already healed. "How…. How did you do that?"

"You know, it wasn't even bleeding that much and I'm pretty tough," Claire answered cautiously. Clark didn't seem stupid enough to believe that, but what else could she have said?

"No, I saw how deep Shelby bite you, which is pretty weird because he's usually so friendly, and Shelby is just, um, stronger than most dogs," then Clark looked at her in the strangest way, like he was trying to place her somewhere in his memory. "Are you sure you've never been to Smallville before?"

"Positive, but what does that have to do with anything?" Claire was trying to change the subject, but it was going to be harder than she thought.

"Well, I don't mean to scare you but there was a meteor shower here about 14 years ago and the meteor rock sometimes infected people and gave them these amazing abilities."

"And you think I'm one of these infected people?" Claire smiled, it sounded ridiculous that a rock could give people powers.

"Well how else can you explain how there is isn't even a scratch on you?" Clark wondered.

"I can't," Claire said as she walked back to her house.

* * *

The next day at school, Claire dreaded the next time she would see Clark. He would obviously ask questions, who wouldn't? But she wasn't ready to answer them, not just yet.

Lana seemed to notice something was up with her, but she didn't ask. She didn't even ask for more details when Claire passed her a note during History, asking if Lana thought Clark was trustworthy.

_He's the most trustworthy guy I know,_ Lana wrote. _Actually, Clark is probably the best at keeping secrets since he does it all the time. He never lets anyone in so you might not want to get too close,_ she warned.

_Thanks Lana, _Claire wrote back, _but if you and Chloe have the patience to be friends with Clark, then I can too (:_

Lana took the note, read it, and tore it in half as she gave Claire a daring look, almost as if to say _don't mess with me new girl,_ which is probably exactly what she was thinking. If only Matt were there to confirm it for her.

* * *

By pure luck, Chloe's locker was just down the hall from Claire's so when the lunch bell ranch, they met up before they started walking towards the cafeteria. Chloe stopped Claire when they passed by a door leading to a small classroom that only had three desks and a computer on each one. It also had a bunch of high-tech journalism stuff lying around.

"This," Chloe started, "is the Torch, my pride and joy!" Chloe smiled brightly and looked into the room with complete admiration. "You're not busy tonight are you? After school I mean? because we usually meet Tuesdays and Thursdays, although I'm there everyday."

"Yeah of course I'll be there!" Claire smiled warmly. She was just hoping to get a few minutes alone with Clark to try and ease the awkward tension between them. She thought about a good excuse all night, something to get Clark off her track before he got too close, but all she could come up with was that she had thick skin and it took a lot more than a dog bite to make her bleed. She would've asked her dad for a much better excuse, but what good would that have done? He would only have gotten too worried that Clark would figure things out and then they would have to move again! She was finally starting to like this town, she couldn't bare to do this all over again.

As Chloe and Claire walked into the cafeteria, they saw right away that Lana was already there, sitting beside Clark and laughing with him about something. Claire felt a slight jab of jealousy strike her heart, but she felt better a few seconds later when Clark noticed her walk in. He stopped talking to Lana in mid-sentence to say hi to the girls who had just walked in. She knew it was a mean thing for her to think, but Claire told Lana mentally that she had won this round. If only Lana could hear her.

"Clark, can I talk to you?" Claire said. She thought she might as well get it over with now.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Clark said as he got up from the lunch table to follow her. "See you guys after school, ok?"

Claire led him to the only place she really knew they could have a conversation in private, the Torch office.

She shut the door once they were both inside and looked at her shoes for about 30 seconds, trying to figure out how to put her excuse into words. To her surprise, Clark was the first to speak.

"Claire, I understand if you have certain, umm… special skills. And you don't have to tell me because I know how hard it is to trust someone that much, but I just want to tell you that whatever you tell me right now will never leave my mouth."

Claire was taken aback and stood in shock for a few more seconds. What did he mean when he said he knew how hard it was? Did he have abilities too? Her mind raced to find a way to answer him somehow, but all she could do was think about how nice he made her feel, how when they were together, she felt like she didn't miss her old friends anymore. And for some reason, she felt a warmth inside that was accompanied by a small voice in her head telling her that she could trust him, that she could open up to him, and that she wouldn't feel scared of what could happen once he knew. Because she felt like he wouldn't treat her differently, he wouldn't look at her like she was a freak because maybe he knew what this felt like, and suddenly, she needed to tell him the truth.

"Clark, I'm different than most girls," Claire said.


	4. Chapter 4: Truth

Chapter 4

"What do you mean by that?" Clark asked, instantly much more interested.

"I don't feel pain, and I can heal myself," Claire said as she braced herself for what he would say next.

"That's amazing!" Clark said to her surprise. "and you've never even been to Smallville before? I've only ever met one other person like that."

"Why did you say earlier that you knew what it was like? How hard it is to trust someone?" Claire ventured. He also seemed different. "It's just that, something tells me you know more about this stuff than most people here."

"Well, since you told me about yourself," Clark started with a look of doubt on his face, "I guess I owe you the same. I'm different too." Clark waited for a response from Claire, and all she did was smile. Clark took this as a sign to continue. "You remember yesterday after school, when you wondered how I got home so quickly?" Claire nodded, already putting some pieces together. "I got home so fast because I can run faster than a speeding bullet," Clark paused and they both laughed. "I know, it sounds cheesy, but I don't know what else to compare it to."

"That is so cool! Most of the people who have abilities that I know live in New York!" Claire laughed until she got a glimpse of Clark's confused facial expression. But just as Clark was about to ask how people in New York has powers, the bell rang and they parted ways.

* * *

Clark sat through his English class, not paying any attention to the lesson. He couldn't stop thinking about what Claire said, about the others like them. Could there be other Kryptonians he has never met? Maybe they we're all from different planets? Or maybe they were part of some scientific experiment? He had no idea what to think anymore, so instead of stressing himself, he thought about Claire. She had opened up to him, just like Alisha had once, and they had a great relationship. Until of course she became a psycho-killer, but that was because the Kryptonite. Claire couldn't be a meteor freak if she has never been to Smallville. He imagined how great it would be to have a girlfriend like Claire, someone he knew would understand what it was like to feel like an outsider among all the 'normal' teenagers. He couldn't wait to see her after school.

* * *

After the last bell rang, the one that let all the student out for the day, Clark caught up to Chloe.

"Hey, listen, I just want you to know that I told Claire about my super-speed," Clark said, nonchalantly. He started walking towards the Torch office as Chloe stood in the middle of the hall with her mouth open wide, completely paralyzed. She shook her head and ran after Clark.

"Hold it!" she yelled, "what are you talking about? I mean I like her and all, but you just met her! You haven't even told Lana about this!" she said as she caught her breath.

"Well, she shared something with me so I thought she would be allowed to know about one of my abilities," Clark reasoned.

"All right, but I really hope you're not making a huge mistake here Clark," Chloe warned.

"Don't worry, I'm not."

They walked into the Torch office and saw that Claire was already there, sitting at the desk that didn't say 'Chloe Sullivan' or 'Clark Kent'. As soon as Chloe saw her though, she but a big smile on her face and said, "Welcome to the 'We Know About Clark Kent Club!" she laughed.

Claire gave her a quizzical look. "You know too?" she asked, more to Clark than to Chloe.

Clark nodded. "Yes, she knows. She was actually surprised I told you," Clark said as Chloe elbowed him in the gut.

Chloe laughed nervously. "It's just that Clark never tells anybody of his own free will. I mean, his parents know obviously, but the first person he told was our friend Pete who moved away, and he only told him that because Pete found Clark's space shi-" Chloe stopped herself too late and wore a shocked expression. Eyes wide and stunned, she faltered for a way to recompose herself and find a plausible lie. "I mean, Pete this school prop and Clark had to use his speed to-"

"Wait," Claire said, trying to decide whether her ears were tricking her, "Did you say that Pete found Clark's _space ship_?"

"No, no no no… I just watched one too many sci-fi movies last night and didn't get much sleep because of it," Chloe rambled on.

Claire looked at Clark for a more reasonable explanation. Clark thought about how he and Chloe are much closer now that she knows about him, and how keeping this secret has made a huge distance in his relationship with Lana. He didn't want to lose Claire as a friend. Besides, she had shared a pretty big part of her life with him, is it her fault that his secret is a bit bigger? He was sure that if he told Claire, she would trust him more and they could be closer. This was nothing like how he felt with Lana. With Lana, he still felt as though she could never understand him even if he ever told her the truth. She just wouldn't know what it was like. Claire on the other hand, would know very much what it was like to be him. And if he shared this with her, she might be more open to sharing her life with him, like how she ever got powers, and how apparently people in New York have powers too.

"Chloe," Clark said calmly, "it's ok, I want to tell her everything."

Chloe glanced at Clark, scared that he was making a mistake, but then who was she to stop him? She always knew that his relationship with Lana would be better if he were honest, maybe he just wasn't honest with her because she wasn't the one. _Hopefully Claire is the one then,_ Chloe thought. Claire looked at Clark expectantly. Clark inhaled loudly to prepare himself.

"Claire, Pete did find my space ship. I'm what you would call an alien."


	5. Chapter 5: Magic

Chapter 5

"HA!" Claire laughed. Really hard. Clark blushed and looked at his shoes. "Oh my god, you're serious?" Claire asked.

"Um…Yes. And for future reference, I prefer inter-galactic traveler. I can do lots of things, but maybe we should talk about that later. I know it can take time to sink in." Clark reasoned.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Claire said as her face went blank. She thought about it for a while. He was just kidding, wasn't he? Aliens don't exist! Well, she always knew it was completely unreasonable to think that Earth was the only planet in the universe to harbour living creatures, but she would never have imagined that an alien would look so much like a regular teenager! Maybe he opened up to her because he thought she would understand being different but looking like everyone else, it was such a façade though. Her life was much more complicated than an average teen's, what with Sylar still alive and well. And isn't that why she told Clark about her ability? All she could really do was trust him.

"You know what?" Claire said, realising that she had been out of it for about ten minutes, "I believe you. Tell me everything!" she said, suddenly very excited to hear about a real alien.

"It's a long story, why don't I tell you on our way home? If you would like to walk with me that is."

"Of course," Claire said with a bright smile on, "that would be great."

Clark smiled then turned back to the computer screen since Chloe looked like she was throwing daggers at him through her eyes. She walked over to Claire to describe how she pictured her article looking like.

* * *

"That is so amazing!" Claire said as she walked home with Clark. He had just told her about Krypton and why he was sent here.

"I guess," Clark said. The next part would be hard to explain, it had always been the real reason he never wanted to tell Lana about himself. He never thought she would forgive him for causing her parent's death. "But the thing is, when my spaceship came down, radioactive parts of Krypton followed me and caused the meteor shower here. Now the meteors, or as I call them Kryptonite, can infect people and give them special abilities."

"So that's why you were confused when I said I had never been here before," Claire realised. Claire was reminded by something Clark had said in the Torch office. "You said you could do a lot of things a while ago, what did you mean by that?"

Clark pondered which things he should tell her and which he should be more cautious about. He decided to only leave out the fact that Kryptonite can kill him.

"Wow, it must be so amazing to be able to do all those things, knowing that nobody else can," Claire said.

"I don't always think it's so great," Clark said, remembering all the times he has had to lie to the people he cared about, "mostly they're a real nuisance. I can never really be myself. I mean, if people found out, I would become a lab rat and I would never be able to see my friends and family again. And I'm always worried about what people would think of me if they knew."

Claire stopped and looked at him intensely. "I would never judge you," she said, as she held his hand and locked eyes with him. Clark leaned down first, as Claire stood on the tips of her toes and kissed him. He was definitely the best kisser in her book. She put her hands through his hair as his tightened around her waist. Now that she believed in aliens, she found it easy to believe that this moment was truly magical.


	6. Chapter 6: Shatter

Chapter 6

When Claire got to school the next morning, she noticed more people looking at her as she walked through the halls towards the Torch. Most were smiling and some people she didn't even know would wave at her and say 'hi'.

When she walked into the Torch, she saw Chloe standing there leaning over a lit-up table, re-arranging articles and headlines.

"Do you know why people are staring at me this morning?" she asked.

Chloe looked up, a bit startled, then smiled. "That usually happens to every new reporter. Don't worry though, they're all just vultures excited about the fresh meat," she added with a wink. They both laughed.

Claire heard the door open again behind her and looked back to see a very attractive, tall, and dark haired young man. She tried to play it cool, but couldn't fight the enthusiastic smile that took over her mouth when she saw him.

"Hey Claire," Clark said with a smile she thought must have been as large as her own. He walked over and put his arm around her shoulders as he looked up at Chloe with a mischievous grin.

"Wow…wow, wow, wow there!" she said with wide eyes as she looked from Clark, to Claire, and back again. "What's going on here?" she asked in a rhetorical way. Claire could see that Chloe knew perfectly well what was going on. "Alright, well if you two are together, I am NOT telling Lana. I know I usually see her before you Clark, but she's your ex so you deal with it."

"I know Chloe, I wouldn't ask you to do that," Clark answered, still with that smile plastered across his face.

Chloe looked over them again, sighed, and smiled too. "With that out of the way, I want you to know I'm happy for you guys!" she said as she walked over to hug them.

Claire laughed. "Thanks Chloe. I still can't believe I was lucky enough to move here and have met you guys!" she replied just before the bell rang and they went off to their morning classes.

* * *

By the time lunch came around, Claire was excited because she knew this would be the first time Clark would get to see Lana all day. She didn't want to be cruel, and knew that Lana was probably a good person, but she couldn't help feeling like the winner when it came to Clark. Lana had been nice to her, she had to admit, but that was only until she found out that Claire and Clark were getting closer.

She walked to her locker and traded her books for her lunch and proceeded to walk towards the cafeteria. When she came close to the entrance, she spotted Clark and Lana talking to each other a little down the hall. Clark was the one talking actually, and Lana was listening and with every passing moment, Lana face grew angrier and angrier. When Clark finished, he had a pleading look on his face, while Lana faked understanding and joy, but it looked too forced. She turned to walk away quickly after they finished. Clark looked up and saw Claire as he began walking over.

"Hey Claire!" he smiled. "I never got to congratulate you on your article, everyone loved how to compared Texas life to Kansas life," he added with a laugh.

"Yeah, I've noticed. Chloe says everyone will stop looking at me funny soon, thank god!" she said as they turned into the cafeteria. It was funny though, with the amount of people there who looked at her after the hit article, she still felt like someone was watching her that day. Someone who wasn't watching her to see who the new kid was.

* * *

At the end of the day, Chloe, Clark, and Claire decided to meet up for extra Torch work. Claire was walking down the hall alone, headed to the Torch office. She had always been freaked out by walking alone in the school hallways since Sylar had attacked her. Maybe that's why when she turned the corner, she thought she saw his silhouette in the distance, turning the corner down the other end of the hall.

* * *

Claire's friends could tell there was something off about her at the meeting.

"Are you sure you're ok Claire?" Clark asked, for the fifth time.

She smiled, "I'm fine, really. Don't worry about me." she said, trying to sound like she wasn't lying. She could tell she was doing a bad job at it.

When the meeting was over, they parted ways. Clark was going to run home, as usual, but Claire was waiting for her dad to pick her up on his way home from work. She would have to wait half an hour, but she didn't mind. She liked looking at all the trophy cases and trying to learn all she could about this little school.

That's when she heard it. A laugh. A dark, deep, malicious laugh, and she froze. She knew who this was, but had no idea how he found her. Just in case her mind was playing tricks on her, she had to turn around to be sure. She instantly regretted this, because she hated the face she saw.

"Hello Claire," Sylar said with an evil grin.


End file.
